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| Mike Rehu bids a fond farewell to Korea and looks ahead to Week 5 |
"The boys at the Football Club call me ‘the Gas Man', that's my nickname", Adam Raby shyly revealed.The Hong Kong youngster had come onto the bench for their first game against Japan, so I got the chance to find out a bit about his background.Well I mentioned this fact in the live commentary and grizzled veteran Semi Iafeta, the Hong Kong captain from last year, could barely contain his mirth. "They call him the Gas Man cos he used to pump petrol when he was a student!" We had a good giggle about that, but Adam has had the last laugh. After a lovely cameo off the pine against Japan, he has had starts against Korea and Singapore and scored seven tries! It's obviously jet fuel he is running on!Hong Kong has travelled to Kazakhstan to take on the Nomads for what has become practically a play-off for second place. Hong Kong narrowly beat them 23-19 last year, but the complexion of the matchup changes after you sleep in an Almaty army cot for three nights, and get plied with vodka at all hours.If Dai Rees and the guys can get through this assignment, it'll be a real fillip for them. To concede only 59 points against Japan has illustrated that Hong Kong has the best defence of the pack, and with attacking weapons like Rowan Varty and Adam Raby they can rack up points. I am picking they can take a four try bonus point and the win for a well-deserved runners up spot.You can see the game on STAR Sports in Hong Kong on Monday at 1930hrs, and for the rest of Asia 2300hrs HK time on the Tuesday. It will be a cracker! ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––At training, I asked Han Hyun Kyu whether he'd like to play professionally in Japan, like seven of his teammates do, and his eyes lit up. "Yes, if he was good enough, he would be honoured." And for all money, he looked as though he'd pass his ‘audition' the next day.After eighty depressing minutes where the Japanese proved that the gap between them and other Asian teams has widened, Han looked downcast as he trudged off, trying to come to terms with an 80-9 hiding.All day Han got the ball at the back of a scrum that only knew reverse gear; combine that with the anxiety of a young colt who wanted to impress the older stallions, and it was a recipe for embarrassment.He is still a hell of a player, but he'll have to go back to his SANGMU Army team in Seoul, and work out ways to learn from this lesson, along with the whole Korean team. Coach Park Ki Haeng, has worked on attacking prowess, and when the team move forward they look silky, but that has come at the expense of grunt at the front.Before the showdown, Japan coach John Kirwan expressed that the collision zone would be where the game was won or lost. The Brave Blossoms smashed the visitors so hard in the opening exchanges that they were visibly stunned. Such was the power of the performance by Japan, at the end they were ruing three or four missed chances that could have brought up three figures..... compare this to last year's 39-17 scoreline and you can see that the ‘Asian rugby peloton' have a lot of ground to make up to the front-runners Japan.The issue is that yes, regular games against Japan should bring up the overall standard, but let's not forget Japan have had regular games against the Pacific Nations and USA in the last twelve months, so they are moving forward, obviously faster than the rest can. |
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